Downtown Tulsa

On this broadcast of ST, we learn about a new book called "Art Deco Tulsa" -- and our guests are the two people who created it: Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis wrote the text, and Sam Joyner made the photographs. As is noted of this book at its publisher's website: "Transformed from a cattle depot into the Oil Capital of the World, Tulsa emerged as an iconic Jazz Age metropolis. The Magic City attracted some of the nation's most talented architects, including Bruce Goff, Francis Barry Byrne, Frank Lloyd Wright, Joseph R.

The Arena District in downtown Tulsa can seem, at times, like the heart of the city -- like when there's a big show at the BOK Center, or a large convention at the Cox Convention Center. At other times...it's pretty quiet. So, one key question is how best to turn a limited-use area into a thriving year-round destination. This matter is now being explored by the City of Tulsa's Master Planning Process; it's a process that's being underway for months now.

Our guest on ST is Ren Barger, the founder and CEO of Tulsa Hub, which is, as noted at its website, "a syndicate of volunteers on a mission to change lives through cycling. It is the only nonprofit in Oklahoma providing certified bicycling-for-transportation education, refurbished bicycles, safety gear, and follow-up support to people in poverty, people with physical and mental disabilities, and people who are otherwise disenfranchised in our community.

The Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa will now be known as AHHA Tulsa. As per the AHHA website: "The organization's Board of Directors voted recently to change the name to something modern that encompasses the organization's mission to cultivate creativity in Tulsa, while also honoring its decades-long history.

Our guest on StudioTulsa is internationally acclaimed "stickwork" artist Patrick Dougherty who is currently creating one of his trademark architecturally inspired sculptures made entirely of willow saplings. It's the latest offering from the Tulsa Urban Core Art Project which has brought a series of temporary public art installations to locations around Tulsa's downtown.

On this edition of ST, we sit down with Todd Clouser and Chris Combs, two genre-busting guitarists and composers whose ever-creative music-making mixes jazz, rock, and funk styles -- as well as electronica, ambient grooves, and even tape-reversing experimentation. Clouser, originally from Minnesota and based in Mexico City, pretty much tours and performs worldwide -- and non-stop -- and has been occasionally playing shows in Tulsa for years now.

On this installment of ST, our guest is Cameron Walker, the Executive Director of Tulsa Habitat for Humanity (or THFH). This crucial nonprofit recently received a $6.7 million grant from the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation, and therefore, as we learn on today's program, THFH is transitioning from building 25 to 30 houses per year (which is what it does in the Tulsa area currently) to building 150 houses per year (which is what it aims to be doing four years from now).

Women are the fastest-growing prison population group in the United States today -- and the State of Oklahoma, tragically, puts women in prison at twice the national rate. On this edition of ST, we check in with the non-profit organization known as Still She Rises, a public defender office based here in our community that's dedicated to representing North Tulsa mothers within the criminal justice system. Still She Rises, which began operations in Tulsa about a year ago, grew out of a similar group in NYC known as The Bronx Defenders.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we learn about "NEW/NOW: Works by the Tulsa Artist Fellowship," the first-ever museum exhibit dedicated to artworks by fellows in the Tulsa Artist Fellowship program. This show, on view at the Philbrook Downtown space through March 3rd, presents various media and styles in newly created pieces by 20+ artists working here in the Tulsa community.

On this edition of ST, we speak with the locally based poet, poetry teacher, and literary activist, Victoria McArtor. She tells us about her new book, "Reverse Selfie," which is a collection of poems written in response to -- or in conversation with, or in tribute to -- various Tulsa landmarks. This book, which actually began as a write-one-poem-every-day-for-a-month project back in 2015, also features striking photographs by Matthew Phipps, thereby capturing in both words and images the vitality, beauty, wonder, and strangeness of the City of Tulsa.

On this edition of ST, we learn about the Unity Heritage Neighborhoods Design Workshop, a program to create designs, plans, and visions for future development in neighborhoods immediately north of downtown Tulsa. These include the Brady Heights Historic District, Emerson Elementary, Greenwood, and the Evans-Fintube site. Throughout the fall, the Notre Dame University Graduate Design Studio has been viewing the landscape and speaking with community stakeholders on how they want the neighborhood to look and feel as they develop their design ideas.

"To have great poets," as Walt Whitman once noted, "there must also be great audiences." And great cities, it would seem, likewise require great bookstores. On this edition of ST, we learn all about Magic City Books -- an indie bookstore owned and operated by the non-profit Tulsa Literary Coalition (or TLC) -- which will soon, at long last, open for business in downtown Tulsa. Indeed, after a series of construction-related delays, Magic City Books will open on Monday the 20th at 9pm...with Mayor G.T.

On this edition of our show, we learn about "Eloquent Craftsman: Tom Manhart and His Students," a new exhibition focusing on the artwork and teaching career of Thomas A. Manhart, a thoughtful and influential sculptor who was a much-admired professor of art at TU from 1963 to 1993.

Living Arts of Tulsa -- a vital part of the arts scene here in town, and a long-running locally-based nonprofit that seems to be increasingly popular -- now has, for the first time in decades, a new artistic director. Our guest on ST is that individual: Jessica Borusky, who's been on the job for only two or three weeks at this point.

The transition from childhood to adulthood -- the adolescent and post-adolescent years, and all that go with them -- can be difficult, of course, for a host of reasons. Whether it's finding a job, finishing school, locating a place to live, discovering what one's goals really are, deciding on a career path, and so forth -- these can be trying experiences; relying on the aid of one's family and friends in such cases is paramount. But what if you're confronting these realities and you actually have no family? Or you have no "support network" of friends, mentors, and relatives?

On this edition of ST, we speak with Corey Williams, the executive director of the nonprofit Sustainable Tulsa, which is driven by (as noted at its website) these core principles: "A thriving society, responsible economic growth, and environmental stewardship...[which] are the mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainability." Ms. Williams tells us about Sustainable Tulsa's next First Thursday presentation, which is a free event happening tomorrow (the 6th) at the TCC Center for Creativity (near 10th and Boston in downtown Tulsa).

On this installment of ST Medical Monday, we offer an interesting discussion about water conservation and related subjects with Noah Roberts, the proprietor of a recently opened shop in downtown Tulsa called The Water Co. This business sells water-bottle filling stations as well as reusable bottles, cups, and straws. And it does so, as noted on its website, in order to "improve community health and habitat by providing drinking water systems and reusable drinkware as an alternative to single-serve plastic bottles and cups.

Tomorrow night, Saturday the 29th, the Downtown Tulsa campus of Tulsa Community College will host TEDxTulsaCC, a special gathering thus described at the TED website: "TEDxTulsaCC is a multi-sensory, multi-disciplinary event with a goal to bring Tulsa's best ideas to our community and the world. Attendees will experience enlightening talks, a shape-shifting art exhibition, the world premier of new choral work, surprise musical performances, and more.

How "walkable" is downtown Tulsa? And how could it be made more so? Our guest is Tom Baker, the executive director of Tulsa's Downtown Coordinating Council (or DCC). The DCC is an advisory board made up of downtown property owners, government officials, and business owners, and last month -- in cooperation with various local businesses, organizations, and individuals -- it welcomed the noted urbanist and walkability expert Jeff Speck for a presentation of his recently-completed Walkable Tulsa Study.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we welcome Steve Liggett back to our program. A well-known figure on the local arts scene, Liggett is an art teacher and sculptor who's also the director of the nonprofit Living Arts of Tulsa, which was established in the 1960s by Virginia Myers and others as a haven for the creation and display of contemporary art right here in T-Town.

On this edition of ST, we offer a wide-ranging chat with Bill Leighty, the executive director of Smart Growth Tulsa, which was founded in April of 2014 and incorporated as a nonprofit just recently. This organization, per its website, is "committed to policies, not politics. We seek to create healthy communities that work for everyone, with strong schools and local businesses, improved mobility options and jobs that pay well....

Our guest today is Ken Busby, the CEO and executive director of the non-profit Route 66 Alliance, which is based here in Tulsa, and which is, per its website, "dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and enhancement of historic Route 66 -- past, present, and future." Formerly the director of the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa, Busby was asked to lead the "Mother Road"-focused organization in 2014; today, he brings us up to speed on the Route 66 Experience Museum, a large-scale development for which funds are still being raised and plans

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we speak with Kim Johnson, who became chief executive officer of the Tulsa City-County Library on January 1st. After more than 15 years as an employee of the TCCL, Johnson seems like a perfect fit for this leadership post. She's very committed, of course, to books and learning and literacy -- and to the vital purpose of libraries within society today -- and she's the first African American to lead the 24-branch system that is the TCCL.

On this edition of ST, we learn about several special, free-to-the-public events scheduled for this coming weekend in connection with MLK Day. Events are planned for both Sunday the 15th and Monday the 16th in downtown Tulsa (with the 16th, of course, being the actual Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday). On the 15th, there will be a Walk of Peace and Solidarity as well as an Interfaith Commemorative Service. On the 16th, a Founders Breakfast will precede the 2017 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Last month, it was announced that the long-awaited Oklahoma Museum of Popular Culture -- or OKPOP, as it's also called -- will be built and housed at 422 N. Main Street in downtown Tulsa, just across the street from the historic Cain's Ballroom. As Dr.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we offer a chat with Douglas Miller, the principal behind Müllerhaus Legacy, a Tulsa-based firm that creates books and other publications on-demand for private organizations and special occasions. A graphic artist and book designer by trade, Miller is also, in fact, a writer, since a book for which he's the lead author has just recently appeared.

On this edition of ST, we welcome back Tulsa City-County Library CEO Gary Shaffer. He joins us to describe in detail the TCCL's newly renovated Central Library, which will re-open to the public tomorrow morning (October 1st) with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. For the past two years or so, the Central Library branch -- which originally opened in 1965 near Fifth and Denver in downtown Tulsa -- has been getting a complete overhaul, both its exterior and interior.

So many attractive and impressive old buildings -- in downtown Tulsa and across this state -- would still be gathering dust, housing pigeons, and contributing even less economically without the Historic Tax Credit (HTC) program. Indeed, HTC projects have injected $163 million in private investment into the City of Tulsa alone since 2000. On this edition of ST, we speak in detail about the positive economic influence that historic preservation tax credits have had (and are still having) in our city and throughout the Sooner State.

Last night, at an event here in Tulsa, Preservation Oklahoma and the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture jointly announced the 2016 list of the state's Most Endangered Places. The list includes the Oklahoma State Capitol Building as well as two locations in Tulsa: the Oklahoma Iron Works Building (just northeast of downtown) and the mid-century Abundant Life Building (near 18th and Boulder). However, the ten sites on this year's list are not the only historic-preservation sites endangered in our state.

Interested in the idea of living in downtown Tulsa? Curious about all the apartment buildings and office spaces that seem to getting refurbished or constructed downtown these days? Wondering about what might be in store for a certain vacant property or unsightly parking lot within the City of Tulsa's Inner Dispersal Loop? If you've answered in the affirmative to any or all of these queries, you might want to check out the 3rd Annual Dwell in the IDL Tour, which will be presented by the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture this coming Sunday, the 4th, from noon to 5pm.